2012 Hyundai Elantra

Comments

Gee, this is a production built vehicle, not hand built, maybe you should buy something that will cost more, still find fault with. To me, it kinda of a nit picking which a lot of people have when they have buyers remorse, all I can say is go buy a Cruze, I see where there starting to burn down to the ground for some reason, you might be happier.I bet your dealer just loves to see you come in. NOT

I agree with you sivicman. GDI is the way to go. I have a feeling Hyundai yanked the GDI engine for the Elantra because it would outperform another model of it's cars, the Sontata perhaps? When I plunk down multi-thousands for a car I too want the latest technology, not some "stay is high gear" tweeked computer program. As for MPG I have three vehicles. A 93 3.0 V6 12 valve Ford Ranger that gets 30 on the highway (on Regular), a 2002 Jaguar X-Type 2.5 24 valve V6 that gets 30.2 highway (on Regular, and is AWD) as well as a 2003 Miata with a 1.8 (rated at 29 hwy) gets 40 highway (10.1 gallons, 420 miles on mid-grade). Only change is Mobil 1 synthetic oil in each (synthetic fluid in tranny on the Jag too). My MPG is achieved using cruise & doing 70mph. None are new & I can't complain about fuel economy.

The adoption of DI has been a little uneven, but it usually accounts for 10 more HP. I fail to see why they didn't put DI on the 1.8L version of that engine, since the 2.0L version has it (in fact, it's sitting in the Kia Soul, it's already federalized).

We test drove 3 comparable cars back-to-back over a weekend. Additionally, we rented the Elantra over the entire weekend. In addition to the Elantra, we tested the Nissan Sentra S and the Chevy Cruise LT.

The Elantra we drove had 40k miles on it. But, rather than disqualifying it from our evaluations, it actually gave us a valuable glimpse into how well the car might hold up [keeping in mind that rental companies generally maintain their cars better than most drivers do] and how it might perform several years down the road, and not just fresh off of the sales floor lot. The mileage would have no effect on the overall build quality, other than to, again, highlight how well that build quality might hold up.

"Best Car Ever"? Sure, if what you're used to are bottom-of-the-barrel econo-box specials. The immediate impression the Elantra made on us was that of a thin-walled soda-pop can on wheels. The general feel of the car was cheapness. The interior had acres of cheap plastic, along with the shiny, hard plastic dash that so many manufacturers are currently churning out. Things went downhill from there. There was an annoying and persistent rattle coming from under the car. Power? Forget it. Not much there for passing, of much of anything. And, with the air conditioner turned on, there was even less power. The engine groaned horribly any time you stepped on the gas. Mileage wasn't anything extraordinary, although it didn't seem too bad, either.

Steering at highway speeds was scary. The electronic power steering that many [particularly Asian] manufacturers have adopted has a long way to go. Steering and controlling the car on expressways was unnerving and imprecise, and the vehicle felt unstable. When going over bumps, the Elantra seemed to jump sideways, momentarily loosing stability. The car vibrated when idling. Parallel parking was difficult due to the limited visibility out of the rear windshield. On the plus side, the air conditioning energized very quickly, although at highway speeds in the 100 plus degree heat, it was barely able to cool very much.

If the Elantra seemed cheap, the Sentra S was like Al Yankovic: even worse. Driving it, we had the feeling of going down several notches in quality. It felt even less solid than the Elantra. Even poorer acceleration, poorer stability over roads, poorer braking. Looking under the hood, we found a tiny, tiny, seeming inch-thick radiator resembling a child's toy. The entire assembly seemed to have been randomly thrown together in the manner of American engineering of past decades, rather than the logical and orderly Japanese method we've seen. Even worse, there was a ledge at the bottom of the engineover which the air conditioning compressor constantly dripped condensation. Now, there's a built-in rust-through situation. We exited the Sentra S quickly after testing it.

The Chevy Cruze 1LT brought a welcome change from the other 2 Asian cheapos. Climbing into the car, you at last experience a feeling of solidness, strength, and quality. Not a whole lot of it, but certainly way more than we found in the other two cars. The Cruze still has the same hard, shiny plastic dash that the other cars have, with lots of plastic parts. Additionally, we looked for the "near luxury car" feel that others have attributed to it - and we didn't find it. At all. My aged 1990's era vehicle [not a luxury car] has incomparably more of those attributes than the Cruse. But, the impression of solid quality was unmistakable.

With the turbo engine, the Cruze had more power than the other two cars, but not that much, and the engine groaned and struggled under hard acceleration of the kind you might employ to merge onto expressways. With air conditioning running, it had even less power and more strain. The air conditioning itself was poorer than either the Sentra or Elantra. Road stability was much, much better than the other two cars we had driven, as was the steering. Looking under the hood, things were laid out better than in the other cars, and somewhat more accessible.

If we had to choose between these three cars, the hands down winner would be the Cruze. But only by default, actually. Looked at on its own, the Cruze offered inadequate acceleration and unimpressive interior appointments and quality. Those thinking that a car such as this was "near luxury class" needs an immediately reality check.

You realize that, despite the turbo, the Cruze has less horsepower than the Elantra? What you were feeling was the low end torque, where the Elantra is very insufficient. But that's why the Cruze was groaning and struggling: the thing's only got 138 HP under the hood.

The interior had acres of cheap plastic, along with the shiny, hard plastic dash that so many manufacturers are currently churning out.

Did you actually touch the Elantra's dash? The top of it is padded. There's a lot of hard plastic parts in the Elantra's interior though... just like in any new inexpensive car these days. Your rental must have been a base GLS; the GLS with Preferred Package has padded inserts in the doors that help schazz things up a bit.

You had the Elantra for a weekend, and you didn't measure fuel economy? If so, what was it?

Driving it (Sentra), we had the feeling of going down several notches in quality.

I don't know what you drive today, but I've leased a 2010 Sentra S for 27 months now and I've found it's a solid, comfortable car--if not too exciting. Also, it's the only car I've owned/leased this long that has had absolutely zero problems--zilch, nada.

The Cruze still has the same hard, shiny plastic dash that the other cars have,...

So you didn't touch the dash of the Cruze either, it appears.

Road stability was much, much better than the other two cars we had driven, as was the steering.

That's interesting... one of the things I don't like about the Cruze after driving it many times as a rental is that the steering seems vague on the highway. That, and the tight rear seat. Otherwise I think it's a pretty nice little car, tons better than the old Cobalt. Makes a nice rental, if I'm not carrying any passengers in back.

"The Chevy Cruze 1LT brought a welcome change from the other 2 Asian cheapos. Climbing into the car, you at last experience a feeling of solidness, strength, and quality. Not a whole lot of it, but certainly way more than we found in the other two cars."

Let me get this straight, y'all climbed in and sat down and felt strength, quality and solidness. Solidness of what...the seats? The thunk of the doors closing? You didn't drive the car yet so how was this solidness measured? For the quality, was it the quality of the seat fabric or the switchgear? Since the car wasn't driven yet, the ride quality could not be judged...quality has different meanings to people. And for strength, how does one quantify this? Not trying to be mean or nothing, but I just don't understand your logic here. I agree with much of what you've written, just not which cars had more or less of these attributes. Personally, I felt the Elantra was a notch above the Cruze and Sentra but felt the seating was most comfortable in the Sentra even though it's the oldest model. Think the Verano is the sleeper in this group though the mileage and price are its two negatives. From all I've read, it seems to be the lux econo ride here though. We're in the market for either a subcompact or compact since our current ride is getting too costly to keep on the road. The a/c is about to quit and with over 108k on the clock, just want it gone.

Think the Verano is the sleeper in this group though the mileage and price are its two negatives. From all I've read, it seems to be the lux econo ride here though.

I consider the Verano to be in a different class than econoboxes like the Cruze, Elantra, and Sentra. If you max out one of those, you get to the bottom of the price range for the Verano. I see the Verano competing more with cars like the ILX.

I was going to craft a really humorous response to porper's Elantra vs Sentra vs Cruze review but after seeing that he registered to this forum on July 12, 2012 and posted his/her one and only post immediately after registering I decided it wasn't worth my time.

I've seen rentals of late with 40k miles... rental agencies seem to be hanging on to cars longer these days. The thing that raised my eyebrows was driving a car for a weekend and not commenting on details on fuel economy, and especially saying a dash is "hard plastic" when clearly it's not.

I am not sure what else you could do. But I would like to say one thing in the defense of this car.

When I was learning to drive I drove my brother's old 1995 Saturn, as he was away in college. Later, I bought it from him. I loved that car. But eventually the car got old and not as reliable as it once was. And with my life changing I needed a new car. Well, I ended up getting a 2012 Hyundai Elantra, and I must say that my new car is amazing. I have recently moved to a city with no highways. But in the city that my car was purchased in the only driving I did was on highways. I remember looking down one day and my MPG was at 34.8. This was only a few months after purchasing the car. In my new city my car now gets 25 MPG or less, but I have a lot of stop-and-go and pretty much no highway driving. But as soon as I take a trip back to the other city, my MPG goes right back up to 30+. I have owned this car since the end of April, and I have not had one problem with it so far, especially none with my MPG. And let me add in that I am a young driver, so I am not by any means the best driver in the world. Still, my MPG has been fine since day 1 of my purchase.

Also, after my grandmother saw my new car she went out and bought the exact same one, with a few more upgrades then mine had. And she has not had any problems with her MPG either.

I do not know what you could do to try and fix your problem. But I can tell you that the MPG problem is not from the 2011 - 2012 changes in the car. I am sorry you are having such problems with your car. But I hope you can resolve them because the 2012 Hyundai Elantra really is a good car to have.

I, was wondering if you would be able to give a quick review (What works, doesn't work, features, glitches, etc...) of the aftermarket navigation system you installed on your Elantra. I am considering installing one as well but cannot find any reviews on this system.